Merrill Out Six Weeks

Michigan defenseman Jon Merrill suffered a slight neck fracture during the team's exhibition game with Windsor on Tuesday, and will miss approximately six weeks, according to NorthJersey.com's New Jersey Devils blog.

Merrill's NHL rights are held by the New Jersey Devils. The blog post was quoting Devils general manager Lou Lamoriello, who said he spoke to Merrill.

Merrill was injured on a hit from behind into the boards during Tuesday's game.

“It’s nothing that needs surgery,” Lamoriello was quoted as saying. “It’s just needs time to heal. But I spoke to him today and he’s doing fine.”

That's not good, and means that all of the Serville/Clare/Chiasson group will skate until he's back.

This incident brings to light the prospect of future NHL prospects leaving school early to avoid possible catastrophic injuries. Merrill is a high end prospect & this could hit him in the pocket book? Here's hoping this don't happen & Jon makes a full recovery! Go Blue,& remember those who stay!

How does this injury compare in severity to a severe concussion, which is what I thought it was initially? In hockey, guys can miss a whole season after taking a nasty head shot, so I guess 6 weeks is a lot better than it could have been.

As a Fire/Medic I've have been on a few calls like this. Anything that has to do with the cervical portion of the spine is going to be severe, but it all depends on how bad the break actually is. A vertebrae is just a bone, so you can break it and have no long term damage at all.

The real risk of a vertebrae fracture is the piece of bone moving and coming into contact with the spinal spinal column itself. Since he wasn't spine boarded and a C-Collar wasn't used, it seems that the injury is much less severe than it could have been.